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Your anti-virus, firewall, or other security programs may be blocking HackShield from working correctly.

Although you may have made an exception for HackShield in the past, it is possible that an update changed enough so that it is no longer recognized by your security software.

For troubleshooting purposes, temporarily disable such programs as a test to see if there is a setting that needs to be adjusted for HackShield to run properly. Do this even if you have added HackShield to the exception or ignore list, as you may have overlooked something.

If disabling worked, it is recommended that you properly add HackShield to the exceptions or ignore list for that security program.

Internet Explorer may be in "Work Offline" mode, which would prevent HackShield from connecting to the internet.

Open Internet Explorer

Under "File" on the top menu bar select "Work Offline" (so that it is no longer checked or enabled).

HackShield uses Internet Explorer for port 80 networking and updates regardless if you personally use another web browser. If you are unable to access the internet using Internet Explorer, HackShield will not be able to update.CACA

Your Internet settings may have been set to use a proxy which is incompatible with HachShield.

Open the "Start" menu

Open the Control Panel

Open "Internet Options" (you may have to set the control panel display to icon view mode to find it)

Select the "Connections" tab

Click the "LAN settings" button

Un-check "Use a Proxy server for your LAN [...]"

HackShield uses Internet Explorer for port 80 networking and updates regardless if you personally use another web browser. If you are unable to access the internet using Internet Explorer, HackShield will not be able to update.

Your Windows hosts file may have an entry overriding the HackShield update server address and is redirecting the guard.nexon.net connection to an incorrect or outdated address.

As the official addresses may change without you knowing, it is not recommended that you lock-in an address for the HackShield update within your hosts file, as this may cause problems later.

Open your hosts file. (typically found in: "C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\") The file may be hidden as it is a protected system file. Read: Show Hidde Files And Folders for more information.

Right-Click on the file named "hosts" and chose "Open With" from the list.

Select "Notepad" from the list

If you see the address of "guard.nexon.net", "hackshield.maplesea.com", or anything in there that could be associated with HackShield or Nexon included in the list of address redirects, remove that line and then save the hosts file.

Unless you have specifically added something to the hosts file for whatever reason, there should be nothing in that file that does not have a "#" symbol in front of it other than localhost.

Note For Windows 7 / 8 / Vista users:

You may not have permission to save the file. To work around this:

Save the hosts file you edited to your desktop.

Go back to the original hosts file in the etc folder and rename it to "hostsback"

Move the one you saved on your desktop to your "System32\drivers\etc\" folder where the original hosts file was located so that your newly saved hosts file is the one being used.